Behind Blue Eyes
by fangfaceAndrea
Summary: Chapter 9 Up. Post Chosen. Faith finds Spike's back after more than a year, now she has to make sure he's safe from Angel until Buffy gets him back. (Not a Bash-Angel-for-the-kick-of-it Story BTW)
1. Default Chapter

Oct 03/2004-Sunday  
  
It was another sunny morning, and Buffy woke up to find Xander Sitting next to the island in the kitchen having a cup of coffee and reading the news paper, just another normal day in sunny Florida.  
  
"Good morning Xan" he looked up at her.  
  
"Morning Buff" he said as he watched her pour some coffee to herself  
  
"I made pancakes if you want some"  
  
"Thanks" she said as she set some on her plate, "hey where did you put the maple syr-" she was cut off by the sound of the phone ringing.  
  
"I'll get that" Xander said and went looking for the phone while Buffy continued serving her breakfast and she heard him as he answer  
  
"Oh it's you, hey! ... Everything's fine and you?... oh I see, so when are you coming home?...really ? I thought your case would be close by now ...it is, sure I'll put her on the phone... take care and get you ass here soon Kay? bye" he walked towards Buffy who was looking curiously at him  
  
"what?" she asked with a mouthful of food?  
  
"It's for you 'B' " he said as he handed her the phone.  
  
"Hey Faith! ... What's up? ... What kind of news? ...sure, I'm sitting" she listened to the other line and nodded "Ok, so you had to see Angel yesterday to sign on the release forms... "  
  
L.A.  
  
"but he moved our appointment for later cause he had some important things to do, but since I didn't I decided to go over early anyway and say hi to the gang and all, y'know see if they needed any muscle for something, anyway turns out that the reason he bailed on me is because he had a little secret, he didn't want me to know about ... chill I'm getting to the point ... no I wouldn't be calling to tell on his new girlfriend I know you don't care if he has one, ANYWAY when I got there Harmony told me he wasn't there cause he had to go to the hospital, but she wouldn't tell me why and I was getting worried thinking something bad had happened so after she assured me everyone was fine, the curiosity was burning me, I mean she's always too chatty even when I threaten to stake her, and she was being just too secretive ... sure I'll wait "  
  
Fort Mayers  
  
"I'll be back in a sec" Buffy told Faith and then went running out of the living room after hearing the cries on the room next to hers calling her, she entered to the blue nursery room, she approached the crib on the middle of the room and proceeded to lift the crying baby in her arms, who stopped the sobbing as soon as she held it next to her  
  
"Hey sweetie, it's alright mommy is here, everything's ok, shhh" she continued calming the baby as she made her way corridor to pick up the cordless phone to continue her previous conversation  
  
"hey I'm back , sorry about that, you know, how Will is in the morning, had to go for him ....yeah he's all big now... sure I'll put him on the line, but you do realize is long distance an he is a baby ... fine I'll put him on " she puts on the receiver on the baby's ears "here Will, your crazy aunty Faith wants to talk to you " after a lot of I love yous and sounds of kisses she put on the receiver back on her ear.  
  
"Hey again, so are you gonna finish the rest of your story or do you miss us that much that you are making excuses to call? "  
  
well yeah I miss you but B this serious, so I would recommend again that you sit  
  
"Ok, continue please"  
  
where was I? oh yeah so Harmony was acting weird, so I just decided to take out my stake to make'er tell me what was going on, she wasn't sure but I promised that I wouldn't tell Angel she spilled, so she tells me he is at the hospital because they received an "unexpected" visitor this morning, but that she couldn't tell me who was, but she did give me the room number they were in, so I got there and see the whole gang looking more worried that usual on the waiting room, and I could just feel something was off, I mean Angel was looking so pissed off it wigged me   
  
"My god! Faith are you getting to the point yet? Seriously I've never heard you talk this much ever and I'm kind of busy"  
  
fine! That secret that was in that hospital room is a newly semi Human and unconscious Spike, that appeared out of nowhere on Angel's office after someone send him the amulet he wore on the battle, he is still unconscious, and Angel didn't want you to find out not yet not ever but I think you should get on the next plane to LA like now cause your ex-vamp might wake up at any time  
  
"huh?" 


	2. Promises

Disclaimer: Joss is God; he owns them I barely own some writing skills that I'm trying to exploit.  
  
A/N: I need a Beta I know I'm a Spanish speaker so I'm' gonna try and find one for next chapters.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------  
  
"Faith what are you saying?"  
  
**I um.. - I said that-**.  
  
"I heard you, you know It is not funny right?"  
  
**look B I'm not joking, I'm saying that Spike, yes your Spike, the man you've been mourning for the last year is here in L.A. in the flesh, and under Angel's custody** Buffy took a deep breath and headed for the kitchen where Xander was doing the dishes  
  
"How?" she asked on the phone, while putting Will in his little dinning chair ,and motioning Xander to look after him. **don't know yet B**  
  
"When?"  
  
**gee monosyllabic much?**  
  
"When?!"  
  
**yesterday, at least that's what they told me**  
  
""this can't be happening it can't be true he is dead and you shouldn't be saying things like that " that caught Xander's attention "who's not dead?" he asked to the petite blond who was growing paler, and angrier at the second.  
  
**B, I'm telling you it is true, he is in some sort of comma, and I don't think is entirely safe for him here, listen, Angel's acting crazy weird didn't want to tell me anything, and still very secretive, no one here is talking too much but apparently Spikes breathing and heart beating, but still vampy or something like that they are not sure what's up, Fred's in on full research mode, and I'm keeping an eye on him, but they don't let me in his room, Angel's orders apparently**  
  
"Look faith this is a lot to take in, can you please call Giles, fill him in and see what else you can find out? "  
  
**sure thing**  
  
"Thanks, I'm gonna take a shower, and tell the guys what's up, but I think that we'll be leaving for LA, ASAP, please keep him safe until we get there. I'll call you later to check in okay? "  
  
**okidoki**  
  
"Well bye, and thanks Faith really, I appreciate it" she hung up to see and expecting Xander looking at her, he was really worried.  
  
"Buffy what's wrong?, apocalypse ? Prophecy? " She shook her head.  
  
"oh God who died?"  
  
"No one died"  
  
"What is it then? I haven't see you that pale since you found out you were pregnant with the little monster here , so it must be either that good or that scary?" that made her smile, cause she remembered that day and how it scared the carp out of her knowing how something that amazing was happening to her, now it seems that that feeling was back, and just like back then she would have to rely on her friends , and hope that things turn out as good .  
  
"Is both" she finally whispered.  
  
"Both?"  
  
"Frightening and good.I hope".  
  
"You know you can ell me, what ever it is we'll deal" she nodded.  
  
"Kay, y'know what? I'm getting you some water " with that he turned his back to her and stared pouring some water on a glass, all of the sudden she blurted out "Spike is Back", at that he turned slowly and looked at her like she was crazy  
  
"come again?"  
  
"Spike's back t-that's what Faith said" Xander blinked a couple times  
  
"Oh M god Xander, Spike is back!" realization sink in , her eyes filled with tears , Xander each for her and she started sobbing in his embrace "god Oh god he's back, she said and-and it just hit me, he's really here Xander , oh god "at that the sobbing stared to get louder , the man holding her was totally confused and freaking out in his head but somehow he pull himself together and went in comforting and protecting mode trying to get her calm, somehow understanding that he would be if someone told him that Anya was back somehow , so he just stood there holding her while she cried and repeated that it couldn't be real, that is how Andrew find them a couple of minutes later, when he walk into the kitchen and asked William, who was transfixed with the scene before him.  
  
"Hey little one, so what did I miss?"  
  
An hour later Buffy had finally calm down , and after showering and dressing up, she came to the living room where Andrew was playing with Will and Xander was sitting there Looking concern.  
  
"Hey , are you feeling better?" Buffy nodded  
  
"yeah I'm just freaked you know?"  
  
"So, what now?, I mean don't get me wrong I still don't like Capitan peroxide, but I don't hate him enough to leave him in the hands of Dead Boy, not knowing what he's capable of"  
  
"I don't know Xan, all I know is I have to be there when he wakes up "  
  
"ok then, we're going to L.A."  
  
"no I'm going to LA, you have to stay here an look out for William, I can't risk taking him with me "  
  
"Sorry can't do, I'm going too, we can leave Will here with Andrew, maybe call Kennedy, and he'll be safe"  
  
"Sure I can stay here, you know I'll protect him with my life" Andrew piped in.  
  
"I know you will Andrew, but I'm still not sure, we don't know if Angel knows the truth about him I mean for all he knows is that you're his father, but what if Faith spilled?, what if this some trap to make me walk away and leave him ? "  
  
"you're right , maybe we should all go, we stay with Wood, Andrew and him can protect him while we stay in the hospital"  
  
"yes, I think that's a good, plan, I'm calling Robin, and making flight reservations, you 2 pack".  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------  
  
L.A.  
  
Faith was looking through the glass of Spike's room, she felt him before he spoke. "Faith I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yell at you like that"  
  
"No kidding" she didn't turn to look at him.  
  
"Look I'm really sorry I don't know what came over me"  
  
"Probably the same thing that made you speak at B the way you did back then , and I'm telling you, it kinda makes me see why she hates you now "  
  
"I know, I shouldn't have.I didn't mean..."  
  
"Cut the crap man, we both know you meant every word because when it comes to Spike something horrible comes over you, and I don't know what it is or why, but I've seen the way she struggled all year, and how much she missed him, and I am personally gonna make sure, that you don't hurt either one of them"  
  
"Fair enough, but I still don't think it was wise for you to call her, she's having the normal live that she deserves"  
  
"Sure if you call normal, being an enhanced Slayer, being best friends with a witch, raising a baby with your best friend, and having a nerd ex- murderer babysitting him, a mystical key as a sister."  
  
"Ok I get it, but still I don't trust spike"  
  
"Funny cause she doesn't trust you"  
  
"Fine but I hope you still do? Can you forgive me?"  
  
"Yes I can forgive you, just try not to act like that ok? It wigged me big time"  
  
"I promise I wont"  
  
She turned and smiled at him, but when she returned her gaze to the sleeping Ex- vamp inside the room, she noticed, his hand moving  
  
"Angel I think he's waking up" and she rushed to get inside the room.  
  
Fort Mayers  
  
"Ok, our plane leaves at 6, if we leave in an hour we'll be in Miami by 4"Xander announced.  
  
"I just talked to Willow, she says, she and Dawn will meet us in LA tomorrow, and that Giles is already doing research on the amulet, and different ways to bring vampires back from the dust-"  
  
Buffy was cut off by her cell ringing "Hello"  
  
**hey B, It's me again**  
  
"hey I was just about to call you, we are leaving for LA at 6"  
  
** really?, that's great, because, Spike can wake up at any time, a couple of minutes ago he was moving his hand, and his heartbeat accelerated doctors say that's a good thing and that aside from the act of being In a coma, he appears to be in perfect health , so there's god chance he wakes up soon **  
  
"That's great Faith I don't know how to thank you for doing this for me"  
  
**that's alright B, just make sure to get safe here, and kiss the blue eyed monster for me a lot**  
  
"sure thing, and can you please say with him until he wakes up, I mean if he does before we get there, I mean I really wouldn't' like him waking up to see Angel's face or someone he doesn't know, Y'know".  
  
"Are you kidding me? After all I've done to et to him, i promise I wont leave his side until you and none other get here"  
  
"Thank you, I love you"  
  
"Love you too, bye"  
  
TBC 


	3. Waking Up

Disclaimer: the characters are property of Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon, ME and Fox. I don't even own the time to write, because "we live in borrowed time", and I should be studying instead of doing this.  
  
A/N: just wanted to thank you for the reviews, I know this chapter is kinda weird, but I'll try to answer the questions about the baby but I think I'll take a couple of chapters. Also the story is going to start jumping in time but I hope I don't make it too confusing.  
  
Chapter 3.  
  
They were on a beach just sitting there, feeling the sand beneath them, looking at the sky and just holding each other as the sun was about to rise, when the firs rays of light reach them Buffy stood up and pull him with her and make him follow her to the water  
  
"You know? It's bloody inconvenient that even in my dreams, I have this suicidal tendency of going into the light with you". He complained as he tagged along.  
  
"C'mon, you know the sun can't hurt you now" Buffy said as she smiled sweetly at him, but he looked uncertain. She tried to walk with him but e stood and looked at her hesitantly.  
  
"You do know .right?" she asked taking his hand and entwining her fingers with his and looking down on her actions.  
  
"Well I believe its true seeing how this is a dream and all"  
  
"That's not what I meant, and why do you know it's a dream anyway?"  
  
"Then what did you mean slayer? "he asked before the train of though was lost.  
  
She met his gaze and took their joining hands between them, and put them at his eye level, then flames engulfed them just like that time a thousand years' times on the cave And she looked at him with teary eyes "I Love You" it was almost a whisper.  
  
"No you Do-".but she cut him off.  
  
"Spike, the reason you are here is because you are my soul mate"  
  
"Buffy, the reason you are here is because you are my soul mate"  
  
They stood there, holding their hands for a long silent moment, staring at each other, until she step backwards breaking the connexion.  
  
"Are you gonna wake up? ".  
  
"Why should I?"  
  
"I missed you".  
  
"You missed me"  
  
"We miss you ... ... y'know? I think this time we really screw up the balance?".  
  
"Not our faults luv, 'sides it was them who gave us the gift, and this is jut an excuse they have to make so that we would enjoy it"  
  
"Death Is my gift, is that what I should enjoy?"  
  
"Pet, you got that all wrong, Life is your real gift; you just needed to understand Death so you could get Life... " He eyed her in wonder and asked "does it hurt?"  
  
"What?" he motioned to her body, she was burning and dissolving into ashes from her feet to her head, it made her panic.  
  
"Spike what's going on?" fear in her voice, but he didn't move as he watch her turn to dust, he only reacted at the very last moment when he heard her scream  
  
"SPIKE!!"  
  
"SLAYER" he screamed but couldn't move, he looked around but even the remains of his golden princes were gone, now it was only him and the endless ocean before him , but he was alone now, the woman he loved died before his eyes again he got to his knees and stared sobbing through close eyes and whisper  
  
"Buffy im so sorry, so sorry love... wanted to give you the world, I love you , Buffy please come back ... Buffy"  
  
"BUFFY!!!!" he screamed one last time in desperation. Before, sinking to the ground, but as soon as he did, he could hear a woman's voice.  
  
"Spike? Are you coming to us?"  
  
He couldn't recognize it, it came from the ocean, but he didn't want to look.  
  
"Buffy?"  
  
"Not her, you have to wake up soon, open your eyes"  
  
And for some reason he did as she asked and open them, when he did he was no longer in the each, he was. well he didn't know where he was all he could make out , was the form of a woman looking down on him, she seemed familiar but he felt disoriented, and all of the sudden got aware that his body ache horribly, he felt tired, so he blinked a couple of times and drifted into a peaceful slumber .  
  
Faith had been sitting on a couch by his side the whole time, looking on him, waiting for any sign that he would wake up, it was weird though, looking after a comatose person after she herself had been in one, sure she didn't remember almost any of it, except for the end, for those dreams she had before waking up alone, and into a different world, a world that had move on without her, she remember feeling so angry, at Buffy, at the mayor, at the Scoobies back then, she remember feeling disoriented and scared, no one should wake up feeling like that ever, so she figured that Spike shouldn't either, yeah he had been evil mythic bad ass apparently , but she'd never been there to witness his evil ways, and then when she came back to Sunnydale, she'd actually felt pity for him he was so whipped, she smiled at the memory of her calling him that after he hit her, always protecting B 'only in SnunnyHell could you fight with the slayer of slayers and then looked back at it as something funny' she mused to her self.  
  
Before she Called Buffy the second time that morning, Angel had given orders to the people in the hospital to let her stay with the vamp (yes he is still a vampire according to Fred's lab results, he still had the demony essence in him or some crap like that), but why Angel held so much power now was beyond her, the guy had been growing loner , broodier, and angrier since Cordelia fell into Coma and she could understand him being depressed, but something was really off with him, maybe it was all that power that came with managing an evil Law Firm, or finding out that the love of his unlife was devastated at loosing the hate of his unlife, but whatever it was seemed dangerous, he was having a cold attitude even toward his friends, he was giving them orders as if they were nothing more that his slaves, and the way he had yelled at her yesterday, was plain awful he had been cruel telling her that she was still a lost child , that no matter how much she deluded herself into believing she had good accepting and loving friends, he was still the only friend she had and now by wanting to help Spike she was betraying him, that she was clueless an stupid, and that is only the half of what he said, sure he had apologize and obviously let her stay with Blondie out of guilt, but his words cut deep not just because her insecure mind believed in them a little, but because Her friend was using those insecurities as a weapon to hurt her, and the Angel he knew wouldn't do that, and if he was all Angelus like, she would have been dead by now.  
  
A low moan cut her of her musings, to make her gaze fall upon the sleeping vampire before her, she watched him move and moan  
  
"Slayer". Only a whisper.  
  
She had been paralyzed until she heard the word, and stood by his side, but she didn't dare to touch him.  
  
"Spike? Are you coming to us?"  
  
"Buffy?"  
  
'A year and a coma later and she still is all the man thinks about. Figures'  
  
"Not her, you have to wake up soon, open your eyes".  
  
As on comand he did, she stared at him as he tried to focus his gaze , and a painful expression crossed his face, he then blink a couple times but closed his eyes again an fall asleep once more.  
  
The slayer run of the room in search for a doctor or a nurse, he had woken up and actually speak a word, things might be looking up after all.  
  
Buffy, awoke by the sound of someone singing in the back of the car, it was an annoying voice she had learn to live with, she opened her eyes to see Xander driving the car, then she turned to the road and saw the sign saying that they were about 15 miles from Miami.  
  
"Sleep well?" the burnet Asked.  
  
"Actually yes, had a nice dream about a beach, how long was I out?" she asked turning to see Andrew plying and singing to William who was laughing and babbling along. She smiled at the sight, it was amazing seeing her baby like that , every time she looked at him it hit her how much she love this creature but every time he laugh with that playful innocent tone he completely melt her down, she got all this warm fuzzy feelings and she felt oblivious to the rest of the world.  
  
"About 40 minutes, I guess".  
  
"Hey Andy! Wanna change seats?"  
  
"Not really im OK, we are playing"  
  
"No I meant I wanna change seats"  
  
"Buffy you can't do this in the middle of the freeway, we may get pulled up" Xander said  
  
"Fine, but I want Will time, with all that's going on I haven't been with him today" she pouted at him and then turned around again to stick her tongue out to Andrew, who just smiled triumphantly at her.  
  
"Well it is my job to spend time with him, but I'll let you having him in the plane, is a known fact that babies cry a lot when flying, and I want to see the movie"  
  
"Gee thank you for allowing me to spend time with MY baby when YOU, the babysitter don't want to"  
  
"What can I say, I'm very giving" He said and Buffy snorted, turning her head back to the road.  
  
"Well you seem awfully cheerful for someone whose past is literary coming back to bite her in the ass" Xander noticed.  
  
"You're not looking below the surface Xand" she sighed.  
  
"so tell me "  
  
"what do you think he'llbe like? Whe he wakes up I mean"  
  
"I don't know, still British and evil I guess?" she glared at him .  
  
"Sorry, i just... i don't know Buffy, you know I never really knew the guy, but I gues I hope he doesn't have amnesia or anything disturbinglike that"  
  
her eyes widened "Oh My god ! what if he won't remember Me? What if this whole returning him from the dead was so that he didn't remember anything and that he would start a new life all human, and without any oft this demon crap?"  
  
"I don't think the powers woul-"  
  
"What if he was brought back to fullfil some evil prophecy or something?, I mean why else did they, whoever 'they' are send the Amulet to W&H?, what if he's back only to go away again" the last part spoken slowly and with fear...  
  
Xander only looked at her with sorrow, she had been though too much this last year, she had been devastades after they left the whole in the ground that had been Sunnydale, he didn't think he was gonna make it trough the hearbreak of loosing Anya at least in a long time, but was sure that Buffy certanly was not going to make it, a girl coul only get trough some amount of pain and not loosing it, but she had felt it all by her young age and she had been a hopless mess up until she found out she was pregnant, sure it was HIS baby which didn't exactly make Xander giddy at the tought, but when she told him looking so fragile and scared and yet so full of hope and amazment, he swore he wouln't say a word again about the Bleach vamp who somehow manage to get a slayer knocked up, and after the first wave of shock and anger at the news, he realized that this was a miracle and not just a miracle in that general creating life is a miracle kid of way , but the guy's guys were supposed to be dead for Pete's sake! and some how someone above decided that he was good enough to reproduced.  
  
And Buffy was so happy, anything that make her happy couldn't be bad right?, so he went into full Best friend mode and do what he had to do, unfortunately what he had to do was claim to be the father of the child to anyone who were outside the Scooby circle, they were the only ones who knew the truth, and Willow had cast a spell on them so they couldn't tell anyone else the truth, so when the news reach Angel he had received a broken nose, which was ironic because Angel was the whole reason they were lying in the first place, anyway it had been worthy , he loved the kid so much and although he didn't actually felt like his dad he did know he would do anything for him, for them, after all they were all a big family now.  
  
"Xander ? you there?" he was brought back from his wonderings by the voice of a worried slayer  
  
"huh? Wah?, oh yeah I just kind of zoned off"  
  
"yeah I could see that"  
  
"I know, I'm sorry, is just that I'm a little worried you know? Don't want to see you get hurt, by all this"  
  
"and also I forgot to call Marco and ask him to handle 'The HellMouth' while we are gone"  
  
"oh I totally forgot about the bar Too, good thing we don't open tomorrow"  
  
"yeah good thing" 'bad thing is that is the least of our concerns right now he thought.  
  
She was waiting outside the room for the doctors to come out with news thy had been there for about half an hour and she didn't think it was good, she had just got off her cell phone after talking to Robin and telling him she probably wasn't coming home tonight she had explained all that had happened since this morning, and he was very supportive , he even offer to stay with her or stay for her if she was tired, which made her totally happy because she knew how hard it was for him to even think about helping Spike, let alone take care of him, and he would if she asked because he adored her , that thought made her glow, 'I have a boyfriend that adores me , heee!', she would have even start to dance her happy dance if it wasn't for the nurse that was calling out for her.  
  
"Miss! Miss!"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You are Mr William York's relative right?"  
  
"Yes he's my cousin, is something wrong?"  
  
"No actually, when the doctors came to check on him, he had already been out of the comatose state, and was jut sleeping"  
  
"It's that suppose to happen?" asked Faith warily.  
  
"Is very unusual in these cases but there's nothing to worry about, quite the contrary actually, it just means than when he does wake up it will be less mind numbing for him"  
  
"I see. So can I come to his room"  
  
"Sure, but be sure not to wake him up"  
  
It hadn't pass 2 minutes since she came back to the room when she watch the sleeping form starting to roll on the bed obviously waking up she decided that it was best that she didn't say anything , so she just sat beside him in the couch and stare at him silently, he continued moving a little until he stared opening his eyes when he did he looked around the room , he wasn't sure where he was or why was he there, but when his eyes fell on the Brunette sitting next to him , he was relieved to see a familiar face.  
  
"Faith?" he wonder out loud and found out that speaking actually hurt a little and the sound of his voice was harsh.  
  
"Nice to see you remember me cutie" she winked at him, at his puzzled look.  
  
"What happened? Where the bloody hell am I?"  
  
"Yep It's bloody you alright" 


	4. Where Am I?

A/N: I don't know why I am making Xander all sweet, usually I hate the guy, but well I guess I'm trying to reivindicate him for season 6 in this thing. Thanks For the reviews.  
  
"Where am I? What happened to me?" He tried to get up, but find himself too weak to move too much, he was still feeling dizzy from sleep.  
  
"You're in the hospital in L.A." she explained while she went to him, to help him sit up, and he let out a small yelp. "I'm sorry I'll tell you everything, but first we need to get you a doctor, and make sure everything's fine with you"  
  
"Why am I in a hospital? I'm a vampire is not like I get sick, and why does my throat hurts when I talk?"  
  
"Look just stays there and I'll explain what I can, but doctors first" she said as she went out the room , and got back with a doctor and a nurse a couple of minutes later, they didn't do much, they examined him and took the readings in the machines he was hooked to, he felt so confused and weak he didn't realized the beeping sound that was present was from his own heart, after thy finished they gave Faith some recommendations al the time he just stay quiet wondering, oh so many things why was he in there and why was Faith of all people there with him, then it hit him, she didn't make it, that's why she wasn't there, she didn't survive what happened, and what had exactly happened? He was sure he felt like he was dying and what about the beach and being with Buffy' was it all dreams? was it real? Maybe he-  
  
"Hey you ok there?" he didn't notice the doctor leaving the room.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Nothing you just kinda zone off there, well since you seem to be all good, I'll try to-"  
  
He cut her off, he was to worried and wanted answers now.  
  
"Is she ok? Tell me she survived please" she wanted to teased him but seeing the worry on his face decided best not to, so she took a deep breath and went to stand right be him.  
  
"Spike she's ok, don't worry about her she made it" she gave him an honest smile. He sighed relieved, she went on.  
  
"Almost all of the girls and the Scoobies made it, except Anya and . "  
  
"Anya?" she nodded. "Anya? Demon girl? God... I don't believe it"  
  
"Yeah, Xander took it pretty bad ."  
  
"I can imagine" I still remember how it feels. He thought, they were silent for a moment -  
  
"Ok who else?".  
  
"You. kinda ."  
  
"What the bloody hell?! I'm here aren't I?, I don't recall being deader ."  
  
"Yes *now* you are, but then." "Wait what do you remember exactly?"  
  
"well everything!" he gave her a 'duh' look.  
  
"Remember the bleeding trinket shooting power through me, remember the fight, girls running out, Buffy holding my hand," saying that she loved me he add to himself "remember the cave falling apart, then next thing I know, you're sitting over there looking at me like I'm the second coming, and now I would very much like to know what's going on"  
  
"So that's 'it? No hell and eternal torment, or heaven with angels the whole package? "  
  
"Wankers with a package? Not my kind of heaven, but No, cave then slayer that's all. Now on with the explanation, starting with where is she'"  
  
"Well I think you're in for a ride pal"  
  
"do tell "he smirked he was feeling better, although his muscles ache a little, but his sigh was getting more focusy 'great I'm speaking like the lot of them' and the talking was a little better after the water the nurse gave him while examining him.  
  
"Well, the reason why she is not here is because she is in Florida"  
  
"Florida? What is she doing in Florida?" it made no sense to him.  
  
"We live in Florida now" she stated plainly.  
  
"We?" she nodded "Now? how long was I gone? It cant be more than a few days "she shook her head no.  
  
"weeks?" again a shook, but she wasn't sure how to tell him he was obviously not taking it well.  
  
"it can't be more than a month!"  
  
"It's been a year and 4 months! Happy?"  
  
'No not happy' he would've said if he wasn't too busy doing the impersonation of a fish, then he took a long necessary breath, 'wait, why am I breathing?, and is that sound what I think it is? Oh bollocks I'm alive!'.  
  
Faith just stared at him making funny faces, then widening his eyes in realization.  
  
"You ok there Buffy? " the brunette asked concerned, she look tense, and no wonder, but thee was a lot going on inside her head, a lot she wasn't shearing.  
  
She turn her head from her kid sleeping on that little chair attached to the plane chair they had been flying in for over an hour, it had taken her about 40 minutes to make him sleep again after the plane took off, and right now she was on the verge of freaking out , no wonder with the day she had, first the news from hell, as she refer to LA now, then the packing , the making arrangements the 3 hours long drive from home, then the waiting for the plane, and now the waiting for the landing, and in the middle of it all the wandering.  
  
The whole 'what am I going to say to him? Does he still love me? Is he gonna be the same? How was she gonna deal with Angel? How was she gonna tell him about William? Would he know how much she had missed him, how thankful she was to him for making her leave and giving her the opportunity of leading the life she had now?'. Because that's why he had deny her love, she was certain that he knew she loved him, she could feel it when their hands were on fire, it was there, the love, the caring the need for him, she knew because for those few seconds it surrounded her, they were coming out of her in waves, and his feeling were there too, all that he ever felt for her was there and it was so beautiful, so pure, but it lasted just seconds. And now? Now she is terrified, not for one day over the past year she forgot about him or did not think about what it would be like to have him with here again with her.  
  
"Buffy are you there?" she was taken away from her thoughts by Xander, she smiled thinking about how good he had been for her, how lucky she was she had him as a friend.  
  
"Uh? Sorry Xan I was just, y'know"  
  
"Not here?"  
  
"Not at all"  
  
"Is gonna be fine Buff, you'll see" he tried to reassure her.  
  
"Is it? Because right now im totally clueless, what am I supposed to tell him when I see him? "  
  
"How about 'hey there, I missed you, nice to know you're no longer dead' ".  
  
"And then what? 'Hey guess what, remember the last night you were alive? Well somehow you got me pregnant in spite of all vampire rules! Which is pretty good except for the part where when you hear this, all you are gonna really hear is some guy knocked me up after you died' ?"  
  
"Or you can call Willow, make her reverse the spell, then tell him"  
  
"Willow, I totally forgot oh god, I have to call her and Dawn again"  
  
"yes call them, we call them from that phone" he said as he motioned the paying phone on the back of the seat before them. "You did bring your credit card ? cause the last time you- "  
  
"I brought my credit card Xander" she gave him a look the proceed to search for her wallet on her bag while muttering  
  
"One freaking little incident with the card and does he let it go? no, he has to keep- "  
  
"Oh c'mon, stop whining. It was funny, and it was not little, I think Dawn will find it amusing"  
  
"Xander I swear to you, if you tell anyone about it, I'll never save you sorry ass from your demon dates again"  
  
"Well I'll never save your sorry ass from human dates again, I mean seriously my demons are way better than those guys you went out the last few times"  
  
"Well that's fine because, if everything goes well in LA I may never date again"  
  
"ok that came out wrong, I meant I'm might not gonna be available." she corrected and smiled a little at the implication.  
  
"see? there's the optimism was looking for!" he gave her a big smile  
  
"It still wigs me that you're fine with the whole me and Spike thing"  
  
"nah there is still some wiggage there, but if came around the fact of you and him conceiving a child, I can be all cool and supporting about whatever happens now. "  
  
"You're the best y'know"she turned to looked at him with an expression that said how much she appreciate him. "Hey found it" she hold the card triumphantly and gave it to him, he took it and proceed to call Willow in England.  
  
After his initial hock at understanding he was human, Faith proceeded to tell spike what went on in all the time he was gone.  
  
". so Dawn decided to stud her senior year abroad, she is going to school in London, but is staying with some family no matter how much Willow insisted on her staying at her place, she wanted to have the whole exchange experience including the normalcy of a surrogate family "  
  
"so the lil' bit is doing well and all? I'm glad, she's strong and she deserves a change in scenario, I still don't get how you ended up in Florida"  
  
"Well real sate in there is a very good inversion, plus sunny place, and far away from LA so that we could start over and clean, it was all Kennedy's idea, their parents have a house there so right after Buffy decided she wanted to get the hell away from here, she offered the place and since there was no other elsewhere to go, we move there, and got used to it, than decided to buy a place of our own, is a pretty nice town , not hellmouthy at all "  
  
"Where's the fun in that?"  
  
"Well why do you think I come here so often? I mean besides the whole legal issue? "  
  
"To get laid apparently"  
  
"Well there's that too" she smiled thinking about Robin.  
  
"So you and the principal, is it serious?"  
  
"serious enough, I mean is starting to be, we just got really together 2 months ago, and sure we live in different time zones, but we'll deal"  
  
"Well that's good, at least the 2 of you had potential, more than Red and the bratty one if you ask me, I still don't get how the 2 of them happened"  
  
"Yeah, we just have to thank whoever that Willnedy is over" the both of them shook their head to get the mental out.  
  
"Yes Will she is gonna be fine, just get here as soon as you can ok?, you need to do something to the spell so hat Buffy can tell Spike, if he ever wakes up" he listened to the phone.  
  
"Nothing is gonna happened to them, I'll make sure of that, he wont even know Will was there"  
  
"Yes I know that he would probably is expecting to kill me, if Angel Told him I got her pregnant, I just have to have my faith in Faith"  
  
"Love bye"  
  
"Well cut to the chase Faith how is she really?"  
  
"She'll be here tonight, and then you can ask her, I promise everything's five by five"  
  
"There is something you're not telling me"  
  
"ok, did I tell you how there was a trust Fund For me And Buffy and thanks to the former Counsel we are now sort of millionaires?. "  
  
"Yeah you already told me that."  
  
"Ok. Did I tell you that right now we are sort of Angel's prisoners, and are being watch as we speak and everything I tell you is gonna be report back to him?"  
  
"You only said I appeared out of nowhere, you didn't tell me I was a prisoner of the grandpoof!"  
  
"Well then let me, it stared yesterday when I found out about you but happened right after I called Buffy, I mean sure we are free in theory but the whole being held hostages is implied there."  
  
TBC. 


	5. The day Before

A/N : thanks for the reviews everybody, this chapter is here only to try and explained how Faith got to find out about Spike and see Angel acting weird, is what she's telling Spike I haven't seen any of the Angel new season so everything I'm writing that resembles is spoil based. Also I know I'm not moving forward but I had to see if I could pull an Angel/Faith chapter. Review please!  
  
L.A. The day before  
  
Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Fred were sitting in the hospital launch discussing what they were going to do about 'him', they didn't notice that Faith was standing a few steps away, she had decided to listen a Little before reveling her presence, she didn't know why, but she had an odd feeling, and wasn't sure Angel would be sharing whatever was going on with her.  
  
"I don't like what is going on, why couldn't you just take him to the lab and run test there?" Angel Said looking at Fred angrily.  
  
"Well Angel, because the Lab as useful as it can be, is no place for a person who appears to be in a coma, and because, you know that if we had left him there people, would start asking questions"  
  
"He is not a person, we don't know what he is and for all we know he is evil"  
  
"Well I wouldn't put him, in the evil category seeing as he save the world last year and all" Wes interjected  
  
"whatever , I still think that him saving the world was an accident, and evil or not I am not taking any chances, he's gonna be under surveillance at all times, and this is top secret we don't inform W&H yet, or tell anyone else for that matter. Understood?'"  
  
"So you're not planning on contacting the slayer huh?" asked Gunn  
  
"I specially don't want HER to know about this, besides is not like I know were she is or anything"  
  
"please, I think that the only reason why you're, acting this weird is coz you're afraid what she would do now if she knows he's back , and specially since she made it pretty clear that she doesn't want to hear from you anymore "Gun established and Angel Just gave him an evil glare.  
  
"Somehow I don't think I am the slayer you're talking about" Faith interrupted further conversation between the fang gang and was met by 4 surprised and worried pair of eyes she grinned at the reaction  
  
"Oh! Faith hey, nice to see you" Fred tried to act cool  
  
"Faith what are you doing here?" Angel said coldly  
  
"Whoa man chill, I just came to say hi, and kind of heard an interesting conversation, involving slayers and since you ditch me earlier, and the whole slayerness has to do with me I thought I should ask"  
  
"How much did you hear?"  
  
"Enough to know that you have a secret that I have to know about"  
  
"Is none of your business".  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Really"  
  
"But maybe it's Buffy's business, why don't I call her and you can tell her"  
  
"She doesn't need to know"  
  
"So why don't you tell ME then? You know I'll find out anyway and even more so if it is slayer related". she knew she was about to break him, he was already giving in, but he stayed silent staring at her, and she could see hatred in his eyes among a lot of other confusing things, she shiver at the thought that she was no longer dealing with her friend Angel, but with someone full of dark feelings, not quite Angelus but he was dangerous.  
  
"Fine don't tell me, but I can't believe that you wouldn't trust me, coz you know all I would do is help out, do the right thing, unless that's what you fear I'll do"  
  
While the whole discussion between The slayer and the vamp was taking place, Fred thought about Angel's motives for keeping this a secret , she could feel the darkness coming out from him too, she knew angel was jealous, that seeing spike again even weak and unconscious as he was reminded her friend of everything that has transpired between him and Buffy last year a couple of weeks after the Scoobies came to the hotel asking for help and a place to stay, he never told anyone what they said but it was pretty obvious that they had an awful fight, that the slayer was furious with him and that from that day on, she decided to disappear completely from his life, she wanted nothing to do with any of them and that the only one who brought him news about her was Faith, but she never said something specific like where they were living or give any phone numbers, in fact all he knew is that Faith was living in a town near Miami, and that all the paperwork concerning Faith's appeal to get out of jail was sent to Robin Wood's house in L.A he didn't ask for The blonde slayer either, he knew no matter how good friends he and Faith were she was sworn to secrecy and she wouldn't jeopardize her relationship with Buffy or any the Scoobies .  
  
"Right you're all good and self-righteous now" Angel sneered.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?, and why am even talking to you, I know that whatever it is you're hiding is in room 403 " she turned to walk said room, but ye grabbed her arm and yanked her away.  
  
"Faith, I'm warning you stay out of this"  
  
"Are you threatening me?, what in the world can be so damm important for you to do that?" she asked in disbelieve.  
  
"I'm not, I just want you out of this mess before..." he was pushed by her and thrown to the floor, when he looked up she was already frozen in her tracks at the door of the room across the hall, it was too late for she had seen the sleeping vamp, and was now processing what she was seeing, it didn't last much, for the second time that morning 2 sets of arms grabbed her before she could protest and she was being removed from the sight of Spike.  
  
The arms that belong to a couple, of big Vamps ware dragging her to the place Angel and his team were, he looked pissed, the rest of them were worried, but interesting on what was gonna happened next.  
  
"Man you've got to be kidding me!" she shouted at Angel, as the vamps tightened their grip on her  
  
"No Faith this isn't a joke" Weasly interrupted before the things got uglier before the Slayer and the vampire, he motioned for the vamps to release her.  
  
"He's alive? He is alive and you didn't plan on telling anyone? all this time he's bee here and you knew and didn't tell her? I can't believe you"  
  
"Now Faith that isn't exactly-" once again Weasly tried to calm her down.  
  
"And you are not gonna tell her anything Faith do you hear me? I'm not letting you, we don't even know if that is really him" Angel stated more calmly ignoring Wes completely.  
  
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?"  
  
"What the man is saying, is that whoever o whatever is in that room may or may not be your Vamp friend, hell we don't even know if he's a vampire anymore"  
  
At Faith puzzled look Fred intervened.  
  
"Well we are running some tests on his blood, the lab should have the results in a couple of hours" Fred tried to explain. That just made the slayer even more confused.  
  
"Look Faith maybe you should take a seat, and we'll explain what we know son far, if that's ok with you Angel?" Weasly asked trying to soothe the situation..  
  
"Sure give her the 411," he then turned to Faith, "then we'll have a little chat, but you're not calling anyone til then"  
  
"Or what? Y'know you can't touch me"  
  
"Just don't do anything rash until we talk, I'll be back later" and with hat he stormed out, towards the elevator.  
  
"You'll have to excuse Angel, he's acting rather odd lately, and you know he hates hospitals"  
  
"Odd?! He's completely out of it"  
  
"Yes well, you have to undstand that this situation is rather hard for him and-"  
  
"Wes cut the crap and tell me what's going on already" She seated defeated on a chair.  
  
"Very well," he took a seat ext to her "Early this morning, Angel received a package from an unknown source, when he opened it there was the amulet he gave Buffy for the final battle"  
  
"The one that Killed Spike"  
  
"The same. Anyway we were there looking at it while Angel hold it in his hand, and all of the sudden it burned Angel's hand so he threw it away, and then smoke started coming out of it and next thing you know, there was a very naked vampire laying in the middle of the office "  
  
"He's not a vampire Wes" Fred corrected  
  
"Huh? Explainy please?"  
  
"Ok, so there he was lying and all unconscious, Angel of course grabbed him but and shook him, but it didn't do anything, and then he realized Spike had a heartbeat and was warm and breathing,"  
  
"Wait so he's like human now?"  
  
"Not quite, see when I said naked vampire I meant vampire, he was in game face at the time"  
  
"Man!"  
  
"Yeah that's what we thought, anyway after the whole Angry Angel shaking thing, his face change and we brought him here"  
  
"Isn't that a little risky I mean a Vampowhatever in a hospital?"  
  
"Well, you know us, we have contacts, actually we already have people who works for W&H here taking over making sure he's being taking care of, we are only waiting for test results, and for him to wake up to see what he knows."  
  
"What about research, do you have any idea why or what or... Y'know anything? "  
  
"As a matter of fact I was about to leave, see what we have on the amulet and search for prophecies, and all we know is that he is in a what appears to be a coma, so when don't even know if he's waking up anytime soon"  
  
"I have to go too but I wasn't sure if it was safe to leave him here alone with he who broods' I agree with Faith he's out of it" Fred said  
  
"Coma? He is in a coma?"  
  
"Yes, he is in a coma, but the doctors don't know why, apparently he is perfect physically, literally he is as good as new, we are hoping this is a mystical thing and everything's gonna be fine " Weasly explained to the slayer who was now staring blankly , trying to gather all the facts. "Faith are you ok?"  
  
"Five by five, is just Y'know, hate comas"  
  
"That's understandable. If you wanna leave I don't think we'll get news today"  
  
"No I'll stay, you said you needed to go and do research, so why don't you? I'll make sure nothing happens to him"  
  
"I don't think anything's gonna happen, those guards that grabbed you? They have orders not to let anything in that room, not even you and they answer to Angel only"  
  
"Please, like I couldn't take'em"  
  
"All I'm saying is that you better talk to Angel before, that way you don't have to pick a fight in a Hospital"  
  
"Fine, I'll talk to Angel, ask him for permission to get in and out of the room, now you keep me up with all that you find alright? And don't worry I won't be calling B until you get me some good news"  
  
He nodded, then the 3 of them said their goodbyes and leave Faith t wait for Angel to show up at some point in the day, that left her to muse over the shocking news she had just received and hope for everything to turn out ok. 'B is gonna freak' her mid singsong to her annoyance. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------  
  
She had been there for 3 hours flipping through some magazine, when out of the corner of her eye she saw him approach her.  
  
"Hey" he said casually. he seemed calmer.  
  
"Hey yourself"  
  
"I don't think you should be here" he stated unemotionally.  
  
"Maybe I shouldn't" she agreed.  
  
"Did you call her?"  
  
"I'm not calling her" he looked relieved for a second. "...yet"  
  
"This isn't about her, if it was, don't you think they would've send her the amulet?"  
  
"Maybe they couldn't, maybe the key to get him back was you, who knows?"  
  
"Or maybe all you want is to be Faith the bringer of good news, make Buffy happy show her that it was worthy to give you a second chance?"  
  
He waned to play it that way? She wasn't gonna fall for it and make this about her. "As opposed to you? She didn't feel like taking her second chance with you last year and now you want to punish her? "  
  
"Maybe this is about the fact that that thing lying in that Room" he pointed in the direction of Spike's room "whatever it is, it doesn't deserve to walk this earth no matter how deluded you are into believing he does. He doesn't deserve a second chance, not here, not with her"  
  
"Oh and YOU DO?"  
  
"This isn't about me!"  
  
"Damm right it isn't, so you shouldn't be the one making calls that will affect other people!"  
  
"And what makes YOU the qualified part? The fact that you're now this almighty warrior of the light? Or the fact that you are now an accepted and proud to be Scooby and all you want to do is please them like their little slave, all the time making amends and calling it your mission"  
  
"You have no clue as to what mi mission is so shut up!"  
  
"And who's fault is that? You're the one who stop telling me about your life, all I am to you now is your lawyer's boss"  
  
"You're not!"  
  
"Yeah, the one you go to when things get rough or when you're to tired to pretend you care for your friends and come here searching for a good fight"  
  
"Shut up! This is ridiculous!"  
  
"Oh great comeback Faith" he sneered. "I've been your shelter since the beginning and when I ask you to do me a little favor all you do is question my motives, that's a real friendship we got going there, all you care abut is you and now you're turning your back on the only one who's ever give shit about you" she was on the verge of tears but she restrained them, it was clear now what he wanted to do.  
  
"I'm sorry. Your emotional blackmail is not working for me so I'm going to that room and make sure he is safe from you until they find what he is" Somehow she manage to regain her calm.  
  
"You're not allowed in his room, if I want it you won't be allowed nowhere near this hospital or this city for that matter"  
  
"Whatever, you or your troops can't lay a finger on me I'm not scared of you and something tells me that if you wanted to hurt Spike you'd have by now so I'll be off but I'll come back later"  
  
with that she left the waiting room, maybe it wasn't the smartest move but she couldn't deal with Angel right now, specially because he was right he was her shelter, the one who was there for her, the first actual friend she'd ever had and now they were turning on each other for no apparent reason It was unlike them to act like that. It was unlike him to treat anyone like that let alone her. She was his friend too and she was gonna prove it to him, she was pissed but not enough to risk losing him, but first she needed to go kill something.  
  
Walking down the Streets of L.A. and after dusting a couple of vamps, she could only hope that she had been right and he wasn't about to do anything he would regret to Spike. She had a feeling that in spite of his strange hate towards the guy he could see the big picture.  
  
Early in the morning after spending the night at Robin's and feeling like crap, she went to talk to Fred, the girl was positive Spike had come back as some sot of Vamp hybrid the results of all the test showed that he still had demon DNA on his system and therefore a demon inside, but for what other test they made he was alive all the way, every single organ was functioning properly, his body temperature was normal and neither sun crosses or holy water could hurt him.  
  
Her next stop was going to see Weasly he had come a long way on the research, apparently the amulet did a bubble thing which apparently meant his soul was intact, and the explanation Wes gave her was actually pretty long and thick so she decided to take his word for it. Before exiting the Wolfram & Heart headquarters she had already call Buffy and was now on her way to the hospital.  
  
She hoped she would be able to make things right with Angel but was still a little way about it, she knew he had her and Spike under surveillance she would have to lay by his rules but it didn't matter as long as she kept the Vamp safe long enough for Buffy to take him away, she was invincible after all.  
  
TBC.  
  
A/N 2: No. Faith is not too full of herself, well maybe a little, but I swear she is invincible! Don't worry I'll explain later. Hey I wrote a funny thing the other day is call "Sweet Girl, Not so bright" it isn't finish but is light and nice checking it out. 


	6. She's here, he's gone

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*  
  
"So I should expect a visit from peaches then"  
  
"Anytime now" she shrugged.  
  
"Something else you're not telling me" He stated.  
  
"There's a whole lot of elses I'm not telling you Spike, but for now I'm not even sure I've the energy to" she really hope he wasn't gonna try and make him tell her about Buffy.  
  
"Do you thin I'm stupid? I know is about her, you're just probably trying to protect me from the news that she's happily shaking it up with some bloke, Is not like I've expected her to be mourning over poor ol' me after all this time let alone miss me" he finished sarcastically.  
  
"Is this what this is about you want to know if she missed you?" she asked incredulous it was ridiculous. he should know she did.  
  
"I know she didn't, don't ever give her a reason to, I just want to know that the new guy's treating her right"  
  
"Look man" she began amusedly at his concern "I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you she's a wreck coz she's not"  
  
His face fell a little but he tried to restrain himself of looking too hurt. It was one thing to rationalize it and other to feel it.  
  
"But she was, at first I mean, but something happened something that make her, no that gave her a reason to start over, a reason to live."  
  
He was about to retort something but Faith stop him.  
  
"Is true, you have no idea, she was trying to be all happy coz she was free and alive and proud because you save her, save all of us" she sighed then continued, he didn't dare to say anything , no matter how much the idea of his Slayer hurting over him pained him, his curiosity took the better of him. "but the happy didn't come, she was silent, distract, like if she tried to talk it out she would choke because no one would ever understand what she was feeling, except someone did" she paused for a moment, then Spike motioned her to continue.  
  
"Xander's was no better than she was, they sat silently for hours on Angel's back garden neither one said a word, but somehow it was what helped them heal I guess, that went on for about a month or so, then something happened that made her life do a 180, but is not my place to tell you what it was."  
  
"Was it bad?"  
  
"Nope definitely of the good, but she still missed you"  
  
"Thank you"  
  
She decided to speak before the air got too emotional.  
  
"Well it was hard to miss; she really went through a serious diva-phase" At his puzzled look she explained.  
  
"Let me put if like this, if I have to listen to Mariah Carey's "My All" one more time, I'm crossing to the dark side again"  
  
"That right? Bleeding tragic taste in music that one has"  
  
she was about to comment on that, but a nurse came in the room, she brought Faith a pillow and some sheets so that she would stay in the Couch beside the bed, then she put some sedative and painkillers in Spike's serum, so that he would sleep well, then the nurse asked for Faith to leave the room, she went to grab something to eat, by the time she came back Spike was sound asleep so she went to the couch, after a few minutes she too was asleep.  
  
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*  
  
It was 4 Am, when an unpleasant movement woke Faith up, it was her cell phone which was currently on vibration mode, she took it and went out of the room not to disturbed Spike.  
  
"Hello" she half yawned.  
  
**Hey, what's going on? I've been trying to get a hold of you for about 20 minutes**  
  
"Chill, I was sleeping you woke me up"  
  
**Sleeping? Where? are you are you still in the hospital?**  
  
"Still here B, where are you? Shouldn't you be here about 3 hours ago?"  
  
**we got delayed in Cancun. Can you believe I couldn't find a single straight flight!? Anyway we just landed, the guys are taking a cap to Robin's, I wanted to let you know that I'm going straight to the hospital, were room is he in? **  
  
"403, but maybe you should go with them and rest a little, I don't think they're gonna let you in this early and he is probably gonna be out for another couple of hours"  
  
**why is something wrong?**  
  
"Nah" another yawn "he's peachy, they put him to sleep, he needed to rest before getting in full health again"  
  
**that's good, what did you tell him about us? About what's happened?**  
  
"Enough so that he wouldn't freak too much"  
  
**You didn't tell him about Will did you?**  
  
"of course not, why? You want me to?"  
  
**NO! I'm the one who's gonna tell him, if and when Willow reverses the Spell, how do you think he's gonna take it?**  
  
"Hard to say, but don't worry he still loves you, I don't think is gonna be bad"  
  
**he does? He's not mad at me?**  
  
"Why would he be mad at you? he loves you for fucks sake"  
  
**For letting him die**  
  
"Look B, we've been over this a hundred times, it wasn't your fault, he did it willingly so instead of worrying over nothing why don't you take a nap, a bath then come and play nurse for Blondie here."  
  
**yeah I think that's good idea**  
  
"Yeah, except he's not Blondie anymore, still cute though"  
  
**I bet. Ok so I'll let you go back to sleep, take care bye** with that she hung up.  
  
"So she's not coming yet huh?" Faith was startled by Angel's low voice.  
  
"Angel, what are you doing here?"  
  
"Came to check in sleeping badness, making sure he was safe and all"  
  
"How considerate"  
  
"Yow know me" he shrugged "so, how is he?"  
  
"Like you don't already know"  
  
"True" he acknowledge"what about her? Heard she was coming later"  
  
"She is"  
  
"That's too bad cause she's not gonna find him here"  
  
That was the last thing Faith heard before being shot with a teaser gun from behind and knocked unconscious on the floor.  
  
"Come on guy's the girl recovers pretty fast, get the English patient and lest get out of here" Angel ordered to the 5 vamps who appeared to come out of nowhere.  
  
"What do we do with the Slayer?"  
  
"Take her to his room, leave her there and don't even think of hurting her" he warned.  
  
"Oh and asked that nurse for more sedatives got a feeling we are gonna need them"  
  
"I'm on it boss"  
  
TBC  
  
A/N: I Know it is too short but I was feeling uninspired, Spuffy will come soon I promise I'm already on it. 


	7. Magic & travels

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*-  
  
When Faith awoke it was still dark she looked up from the couch to gazed at the now empty hospital bed and that's when it all came crashing at her and it was accompanied by the pain from the burn the teaser left in her backside, and just one name stuck on her mind.  
  
'Angel'  
  
She stood up and went outside running to the main desk on the floor where a petite nurse was on the phone, she noticed that it was past five on the clock before approaching the woman.  
  
"Where is Spike?" She urged.  
  
"Excuse me what? Where's who?"  
  
"Mr. York, William York, Room 403, where is he?"  
  
"I don't know miss, let me check"the woman looked on the computer. "I'm sorry miss, we don't have anyone registered in room 403, are you sure he was there?"  
  
"What do you mean? I spent the whole night with him on that room. Maybe he was moved or something?" She knew it was pointless but she needed a reasonable excuse for his absence before she started to panic.  
  
"I'm sorry I don't have anyone under York in this floor either, nothing the past 3 days at least so I think you might be mistaken-"  
  
"Are you thick? I told you I've been with him all night, he arrived 2 days ago he was in a coma, there was this tall nurse watching over him, there were guards on his door..."  
  
"Look I really don't know what are you talking about, I just got the morning shift a few minutes ago"  
  
"Bullshit, I now he took him and you're probably under his payroll maybe even the whole hospital is. Shit!" with that she took off, she needed to get to Robin's, Call Wes maybe he might help somehow, and it wasn't to long since Angel was there, they couldn't be too far right?  
  
*-*-*-*-*-**-*-*-*-**-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- *  
  
She didn't call Buffy on the way to Robin's, so standing there in front of his door wondering if she should come in had never been so hard, specially since she didn't have a clue on what was going on, she had call Wesley but he wasn't home, I t was too early for him to be in the office, but she tried anyway and all she got was message saying that due to technical problems the W&H lines were out of service, and she should try again in a few hours.  
  
Then all of the sudden she heard the door knob turn, and before she could even panic Buffy was in front of her.  
  
"Faith?" she wondered startled by the brunette in front of her  
  
"Hi" she said tentatively.  
  
"Wha- why are you here?" she said starting to panic at the frown of the other slayer.  
  
"Angel took Spike"  
  
"What?! How? Weren't you supposed to be watching him?"  
  
"I was but the bastard teased me, I woke up 20 minutes ago and there was no trace of Spike in the hospital." She said defensively as she made her way trough the house.  
  
"God, what does Angel want with him? Why didn't get here sooner?" she exclaimed as she followed and went to the living room.  
  
That's when Robin decided to appear from the stairs.  
  
"Buffy? What's the mater?" then he saw Faith and despite the worry he couldn't help but let a faint smile appear in his face. "Faith what happened?" he wondered as he approach her.  
  
She shook her head "B I'm sorry, is my fault I should've been less stupid" she told the wide eyed slayer, who couldn't really understand what was going on.  
  
"Faith what's going on?" Robin asked tentatively, worried at the sight of the 2 slayers acting so freaked out. The brunette turned to him "Angel he went by the hospital this morning I guess he had people with him they knocked me out, next thing I know I was laying in Spike's room but he wasn't there when I asked about him they said they had no records of any William York. God I'm sorry Buffy" she told the slayer who seemed calmer after hearing the whole story  
  
"Don't be, is not your fault, all this is Angel's doings"  
  
"Look I don't know this Angel guy that much, but what can he possibly wan with Spike? I mean I don't think killing him is what he wants, after all he could've done that and leave the corpse and the blame on Faith" Wood interjected.  
  
"You're right that's why I called Wes on the way over; maybe he needs Spike for something, anyway Wes wasn't home and is to early for him to be at the office"  
  
"Something like what? Do tests on him?" Buffy asked worried.  
  
"Is an option, knowing Wolfram & Hart's procedures?"  
  
"Ok, look can't sit here and do nothing, Faith why don't you take me to Wolfram & Hart? And Robin can you please wake Xander up, give him the 411 and call the rest of Angel's guys?" she asked making her way to the door.  
  
"Sure, I'm also calling slayer central maybe they've heard something, anything comes up I'll call" he replied while watching them go.  
  
"Thanks" and with that they hop in Faith's brand new Toyota and made their wait to the law firm.  
  
A few minutes after the Slayer's departure the phone rang, it was Wesley and Fred calling to warn Buffy, Angel was planning something against spike, they were surprise to find out, Angel had already gone into action.  
  
*-*-*-*-*-**-*-*-*-**-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- *  
  
Spike could feel he was in a car, he felt numb, he could smell his grandsire near, and that cause hi an urge not to open his eyes he started to remember the night before, all that Faith told him and it unnerved him not feeling her around, what were they taking him? Had Faith sold him out o the pooffster? No couldn't be the girl might have a bad ass attitude but she wasn't evil, involuntarily he le tout a sight.  
  
"Boss I think he's coming to it, want me to give him something to make him sleep some more?"  
  
"No is Ok, too much drugs and he could be hurt, no need to that yet" Angel replied, and Spike dare to open his eye, he couldn't focus his eyes well but he made out 4 figures, he moved a hand to find out he was chained to the bed he was on. One of the men was Angel, who gave him a side glance and went back to read some papers .  
  
"where are you taking me peaches?"  
  
"you'll see"  
  
"You realize Buffy's gonna kick you ass after she finds you?"  
  
"You worried about me?"  
  
"Nah, just a warning, Y'know she gets stake happy when they hurt her men"  
  
"Don't worry, after I'm done with you, Buffy won't want anything to do with you, and you'll be as far from a being a man as you'll ever be, now be a good boy and rest some more is a long ride"  
  
*-*-*-*-*-**-*-*-*-**-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- *  
  
"Wait a second, are you telling me Angel not only took Spike , but he also made sure to knocked all of you outlast night and get you trapped inside his office, so that you wouldn't interfere with whatever plans he has? " Buffy the members of the A.I. team including Harmony, who were now sitting on the couch in Angel Office putting ice on their heads and slightly nodding their heads in spite of the pain.  
  
"Ok what I don't get is how did this happen? Aren't you suppose to be the #1 demon fighting team in L.A and one lousy Vamp gets the better of you?" asked Faith in disbelieve.  
  
"No, 5 lousy vampires got the better of us, and I'm pretty sure that after they hit us, they used teasers on us so that we wouldn't wake up, then we find out we can't open the door from the inside, luckily the didn't disconnect the phones and we were able to call Mr. Wood" Wesley explained  
  
"Yeah well lucky for you, unfortunately for me he's got Spike and who knows here did he take him to"  
  
"Blondie Bear?! You don't thing her gonna harm him do you?" The vampire asked the blond slayer who just shot her an annoyed look.  
  
"All I know is that Angel isn't totally evil, if he was he wouldn't have let you all live" Buffy stated.  
  
"I think you're quite right, there has something more to this, maybe... no I don't think"  
  
"What Wes, Y'know something we don't?, cause I gotta tell you man, I'm not liking where this is going, I mean Angel is going to the dark side again, and you remember how that went don't you?" Gunn pointed out to Wesley, who just shook his head a little an stared at Buffy and Faith.  
  
"well you see, I thing that seeing Spike alive affected him a great deal, specially since there's a prophecy referring to a vampire with a soul who is gonna find redemption and become human again "  
  
"The thing is Spike Isn't Human, not according to the lab results anyway" Fred replied.  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
"I'm saying that whatever is protecting spike against the sunlight, whatever is making him breathe and have a heartbeat is not biological, his DNA has the exact same structure as any other Vampire, what I think is happening to him has more to do with magic than with rewards"  
  
"And when were you planning on sharing this information with the rest of us?" Asked Faith accusingly.  
  
"I just remember that's what I was gonna tell Angel Last Night right before the big unconsciousness"  
  
"Wait so, Spike's not really human? It was just a big joke?" Buffy asked her face fell as the little brunette shook her head no. "Sorry" she whispered.  
  
"Well I'm certain I don't know anyone with the power to work such a spell, only in legends would vampires be granted such fortune as to be able to feel the sun without burning, let alone to be given his biological functions back even if it is only a glamour of some kind"  
  
"Ok, so if this is a legend point me where I can find answers about it, Faith call Xander ask him to come and help, tell him to bring Andy and Will, I don't want to leave then unobserved, Wes do you mind us working here? Coz we can go elsewhere"  
  
"of course not Buffy we're in this together, whatever happens to Spike And Angel is our Problem too, whatever you need just ask, now let me show you our library, and get the research started, Gunn You're in charge of running the office, we don't want anyone to find out Angel's gone MIA"  
  
"Your call Man"  
  
"Very well now if you 2 girls follow me, I promise we'll do everything we can to help you get Spike Buffy"  
  
"Thank You Wes" she smiled at her former watcher knowing she could trust this man.  
  
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-**-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- *-*-*-*-*  
  
"Willow what is it?" Dawn asked the witch next to her who stared breathing erratically. "I'm ok Dawnie, no need to worry, i just got a feeling something's going very wrong, can feel it in the air, there are big magics working in LA, allover California actually"  
  
"Magics? How can you tell? Did you see something?"  
  
"I did, and is not good"  
  
"you think something's wrong with this whole Spike thing? "  
  
"I thing that what's wrong is that I can't feel spike anymore, I mean when Buffy called I searched for Spike, you know to get a feel, to see if it was real and he was, but just now I did it again just to make sure and there was nothing, then it hit me, there is a lot of darkness surrounding L.A., surrounding Buffy"  
  
"You think they are in danger?"  
  
"I think they, we, always have been in danger Dawnie"  
  
"I know, but before there wasn't any son of any vampire in the world, nor did we know about prophecies that revolve around him and his dad, prophecies we've neglected to tell my sister"  
  
"I know but we did it for her own safety, if now is the time to tell her we will, but she didn't need to know .ok?"  
  
"I just hate lying to her, and I'm worried for Will"  
  
"Me too sweetie, me too"  
  
TBC 


	8. Discoveries

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except my own disappointment at knowing there will be no Whedonverse in TV Next season. Sights .  
  
AN: I know is short, very short actually, but my muse doesn't wan to cooperate. Sorry for the delay I'm just so out of my element when it comes to writing lately that I'm glad I actually manage to write something  
  
"Hey, he asleep?" the brunette asked as she entered the office.  
  
"Yeah, I guess he's pretty tired with all the traveling" Buffy answered her friend, without taking her eyes of her son.  
  
"If only we could put Andrew to sleep too" Faith went to stand next to the older slayer who let out an amused sight at the other's comment.  
  
"I can't believe how much he's grown over the past few weeks"  
  
"I know"  
  
"You know? I always thought he looked just like you but after seeing Spike yesterday..."  
  
"He has his eyes" the blond stated while she smiled.  
  
"Yeah, kid's gonna be a looker"  
  
"Yeah" they fell silent.  
  
"He was dreaming about you, Y'know, right before he woke up. First thing on his mouth was your name" The younger girl tried so reassured the blond somehow.  
  
"I can't fail him Faith, I have to find him I don't -"she started but was cut ff by her friend.  
  
"We'll find him B you'll see, is gonna be ok"  
  
"I just can't understand what Angel can possibly want with him, I mean I know there isn't lost love between those 2, but this ughh" She sighed exasperated "I feel so useless I mean we aren't getting anywhere--"Buffy was cut off by a knock on the door, followed by Andrew stepping inside the office.  
  
"umm Buffy, Faith, Mr. Wesley says he's might got a lead, so you Might wanna go to his office or something"  
  
-------------------------------------- -----  
  
Spike awoke again by the feel of something being poured down his throat, a few seconds and he realized it was blood; he opened his eyes and managed to see Angel's face above his, he wanted to say something but when he opened his mouth words didn't come out, instead some sort of yellow light came out of him and find its way into Angels mouth, his eyes drop to his own chest where three scorpions were roaming around, and some odd patterns were marked in blood, he then look up again only to find Angel grinning at him before he lost conscious again.  
  
-------------------------------------- ------  
  
"Ok, Wes please tell me you have something useful" the slayer said as she made her way through her ex-watcher office were everyone was already there.  
  
"Yes, well It appears that for the past few months Angel's been doing some research about souls, he didn't erase his history logs from his computer, or the W&H library"  
  
"Ok but what does it have to do with this? Or with bleach boy anyway?"  
  
"Well for what we were able to collect, his research was harmless, just about self knowledge and the implications of a soul, but while I was looking for clues on what can possibly had been the reason for Spike's return I found that a couple of the my tomes which have to do with vampirism and soul rituals were missing"  
  
"Ok so that doesn't prove anything, yet, so the boss was trying to find answers" Gunn said trying to be the voice of reason, and not to jump into conclusions.  
  
"Yeah Wes, it doesn't seem concrete"  
  
"No I'd wager it wouldn't except, the books he took all have references to an old ritual used by not many species of demons"  
  
"What kind of ritual?"  
  
"A ritual to remove a person's soul"  
  
-------------------------------------- ------ 


	9. Ignorance is bliss

A/N: This Chapter is all about the dialogue, sorry I'm not big with the long reflections these days, But I hope you like it and forgive me for the delay, I lack creative skills, I'm muse-less, and real life is not too inspirational, I just got an urge to write the other day and this is the result.

**Chapter 9 Ignorance is bliss**

"You do realize She is gonna kick our asses for not telling her sooner right?" the 18 year old said while standing in front of The Wolfram & Hart building.

"I know, but I don't know" The witch hesitated, some part of her wasn't

"Huh?"

"Is just that this thing with the prophecy, it seems fishy somehow, like there's something I should know t but I can't remember"

"Willow, I translated it, Giles translated it, that watcher guy from the languages department translated it, we all came to the same conclusion, we just dismissed because he was dead but now..."

"I just can conceive it; I don't think even soulless Spike from before the chip would do something like that, he wouldn't do anything to hurt her"

"Well 3 years ago I wouldn't thinks so either, he prove me wrong then..."

Dawn let the thought fade, she couldn't think like that they were here to make things right.

"Dawn, she's forgiven him you should too"

"Well we had different things to forgive..."

"Dawn..." Willow started but the younger girl just shook her head, and cut off whatever Willow was gonna say.

"I forgave him ok? But I guess it was too late, and now he's in the hands of the person, who taught him how to be evil, can't lose sight of the big picture Will"

"The one where Spike'll become a huge danger and Buffy won't be able to-"

"She won't have to, I will. And you'll help me"

With a sight the witch agreed. "I hate the big picture"

And with that the pair made their way to the insides of the LA branch of the evilest evil in the world.

* * *

"What the frigging hell?" Xander exclaimed "Why would the evil undead take Capitan peroxide's soul, doesn't he already have one? What is he? Collecting them?"

"I'm with the Xan-man what the hell?" The brunette slayer agreed.

"Well the ritual itself is rarely used, it transfers a human soul into a demon vessel, and there aren't many demons who would willingly, subject themselves to such thing"

"so what? He can either be transferring Spike's soul into him, or into another demon. Why?"

"Or trap it in a shiny jar like that time with The Angelus deal" Faith put in.

"No it wouldn't be possible, the ritual with the Muo Ping is quite different, it consisted in taking out the soul by the same means that it was acquired, this is transference"

"Yeah and this time his annoying son is not here to try and stake him" Faith murmured off handily.

"What?" Buffy inquired.

"What what?"

"What did you just say?" The brunette looked clueless at the elder slayer, while the members of the LA gang seemed a bit taken aback, even if they didn't notice the others wonder reflected over their aces.

"What the jar thing?"

"No. after"

"Haven't said a word B"

The blond was about to reply but a voice coming from the doorway cut her off, and the confusion on the others faces went as it came.

"So this is evil central huh? Gotta say I'm impressed" The teenager said with a grin in her face.

"Dawn!" Buffy run to the arms of her sister and the two embraced tightly.

"Hey sis"

"Hi sweetie, I'm so glad you came" she said releasing the younger girl. And looking past her Shoulder where she noticed her best friend standing.

"Will!" She along with everyone else in the room proceeded to greet the newcomers.

Small talk was heard all around as Xander and Willow told each other how much they missed each other, and Dawn pull Buffy aside.

"So where's Will?"

"He's sleeping in Wesley's office"

"Can I go see him?"

"Sure, you won't wake him, I swear he sleeps trough anything"

* * *

"So... You've gone more psycho than usual?" asked Spike in a conversational manner, after a few hours, he was feeling better, all things consider.

"Spike shut up" the Vampire said from the other side of the room where he was sitting and reading some papers.

"I'm just saying, crazy doesn't look good on you, not that you're better when you're sane" he muttered the last part.

"I like you so much better when you're unconscious"

"Oh I'm touched Peaches, you like me"

"I'll like you much better when I'm done with you so don't worry, just shut the hell up and wait"

"So you'll keep the torture huh? Tad overdramatic don't ya think? I mean yeah you and Buffy and the big eternal love, and then she turns into my arms..."

"And has Xander's kid?" at Spike's look of confusion he grinned evilly and continue "oh what? Faith didn't tell you? Our little Buffy is a mommy and with Xander no less, didn't take her long to get over your death I guess"

"You're lying!" Spike snarled.

"Wish I was, that's why we fought back then, I told her I wouldn't take her back that she should at least take some responsibility and raise the kid with his own father, that I didn't want anything to do with her anymore"

"You're lying"

"Oh you should have seen her, all weepy and begging me no less"

"She and Xander? But she"

"Well if it is even Xander's, wouldn't put it pass her to have him raise someone else's kid, that bitch would sleep with anyone, look at you"

"Stop talking about her like that and sod off you crazy Bugger"

"Sorry didn't mean to touch a nerve Willy, I don't even know why you keep defending her; she's not worth the pain"

"For you anyway" 'for me she's the world' he thought "so if this isn't your way to get back at her for being with me why do it? Where do you get off?"

"You never were much for the big picture were you Spike?" the other' man's voice went deep and serious.

"Nope, more of a big bad kinda guy"

"That's just too bad, cause what I'm doing here is painting over a Picasso"

"You don't say, and what would that be"

"Say you're not too fond of hat soul of yours are you?"

* * *

"Oh look at him he's so cute" Dawn whispered above the sleeping child, and then she gave him a soft kiss on the forehead.

Buffy came to stand beside her, "I know, sometimes I can't believe he's real you know? That he is for real "

"I know, who'd a thought you actually turned out to be such a Mom mom huh?"

"Hey! watch it missy"

"See my point?" Dawn said with a raise eyebrow "You're pretty great actually"

"Thanks" She said motioning for her sister to go out of the office into a hallway where they could talk privately for a few minutes.

"So how are you? Really?" The slayer shrugged.

"I've been worse, but I'm scared of so many things, my priority is finding Spike, then I'll see how to deal"

"Right, so you're having Willow reverse that spell? Do you trust Angel's friends?"

"They're ok, plus Wesley may have change over the years but he still seems to be a white hat, I don't think they're dangerous, I however don't know what to think of Harmony, she's been willing to help but..."

"Harmony's here? How come I didn't notice her?! That bitch kidnapped me once" The teenager replied outraged.

"She's Angel's secretary, I thought I told you" The other girl shook her head.

"Harmony is Angel's secretary and you still had doubts he's totally evil?!"

"Weirder things have happen" she stated.

"Buffy he told you to have an abortion! He knew you loved Spike and he still told you to do that"

"I know, why do you think I cut myself off from him?"

"I'm still not sure if we really managed to erase his memories about who Will's father is, and even if we did, he's not that stupid he probably figured it out and is doing God knows what to Spike, just as a distraction to get to Will, or to get Will trough Spike"

"You think I don't know that? Think I don't care?, but this isn't a jealousy deal, this isn't about Will and me, this is bigger than that, I can feel it, not just some macho pissing contest"

"You can't know that, you don't even know if that was Spike"

"Wow, now you're sarting to sound like Angel" said Faith who had been there for a while unnoticed to the two sisters.

"What?"

"Angel, he said the same thing to me yesterday, and anyway, to answer you question I saw him, believe me it was Spike"

"And he still had his soul?"

"Well I would think so seeing as how that's why Angel wants him" the slayer said, and Dawn made a clueless face at her sister, who sighed and tried to explain as calmly as she could.

"Wesley; he was explaining to us how he found records showing Angel picking an interest in rituals to remove souls, we think he might be removing Spike's soul as we speak" Buffy cringed as she spoke , seeing the look of worry her sister was getting.

"Well if that's true we need to know why, why don't we get back" said the girl with a determined face that would make Willow proud.

So they 3 made their way back to the war room, where the Wicca was being brought up to things, and making her own theories.

* * *

"My soul? What's my soul had to do with your insanity?" Spike asked trying to get as much info on things as he could, if he was physically restraint he could at least pick something in the great poofness plan to set himself free. That, and he really didn't want to think about Buffy and Xander together right now.

"Well you see, all started a few years ago, when you killed your first slayer" he saw Spike flinch at the memory, in a not so repenty way, but didn't mention it.

"that's what put you on the PTB's map, you could've been a true warrior for the forces of darkness but you were to close minded to even think of anything else than pleasing Dru" Angel spit the name with such disdain, for the first time in this not so pleasant day Spike felt true fear at being at Angel's mercy, evil as he was he'd never hear him say his sire's name with anything not resembling proud at such twisted creation.

"Yeah well, always been love's bitch" The younger vamp said trying to keep his cool, he however thought this was gonna be a long night.

"Anyway, it wasn't enough was it you had to go an get yourself another one"

'oh yeah this is gonna be a bloody long night'

"yeah I was there, I remember"

"And then you went and prove yourself a champion, like me"

"You know how cocky you sound saying that?"

"But the world is not too big for the both of us, and the senior partners had to intervene, good thing Angel had already sold himself to them, soul and all"

"What the hell are you on? "

"So they did what they had to, they got rid of him and send me to fill in"

"You are not Him, who are you?"

"But now a Vampire with a soul is back, after the heroic dying and all, and we can't have that can we?"

"What are you then some shape-shifting demon of some sort?"

"Hell no, I am them and I am in Angel's actual brooding body" Angel said and stood up to where the other Vampire laid and put some more sedatives in his serum, not answering to the questions the other was asking.

* * *

They had been gathered for a couple of hours, doing research on Angel's soul, on the Shanshu prophecy and trying to get the location of Spike failing miserably at that.

Dawn had been oddly silent, not voicing much of her opinions after what Buffy told her, she shared several glances with Willow that showed her concern every time the topic of soulless Spike was brought up by someone in the room.

Finally and after doing some mojo and more research Willow said she had found out something about what was keeping Spike off her magic radar, so she went on and explained to the people in the room.

"So whatever is doing this is changing Spike essence? Like one minute he's a vampire, the next he's human, and at times he's a hybrid?" Buffy asked after hearing her friend explanation, which actually solved a lot of the, what is Spike now, questions.

"nope, just his exterior, is a glamour, lots of them actually, that's why I can't find a location, he keeps changing so if I try to scribe for him as a vamp, he'll probably be giving human vibes, if I go for hybrid he's probably a vamp and so on"

"I would guess is a diversionary tactic, I'm sure we can undo the glamour but it would take us some hours days even... " Welsey interjected.

"But it can be done right?" the read headed girl nodded.

"So this isn't a forever kinda deal, Angel is buying himself time"

"Which means he's acting on a time limit, we can stop him from unsouling Spike" Buffy said trying to convince her self more than anything, which lead to dawn sending another glare at the witch who gave her a defeated nod.

"Buffy there is something else you should know..." her little sister said to her.

TBC

R&R


End file.
